A city board meeting turned to a heated debate Tuesday night. Amid shouts of “you’re failing the city,” the Little Rock City Board approved funding for a controversial policing technology.
The Real Time Crime Center has been active in Little Rock since 2022. The software uses video surveillance to track crime across the city. During public comment, several residents spoke out against the technology. They were concerned about racial profiling and government surveillance. The contract will continue for another 5 years and cost $864,500.
The surveillance technology is owned by Axon Enterprise, Inc. The company boasts large successes from the technology, but independent studies have shown mixed results.
Little Rock Police Chief Health Helton previously told Little Rock Public Radio that he had seen the technology work.
“Great example out of Baseline and Chicot, a shooting occurred,” Helton said in an interview. “Within 30 minutes of that shooting, we were able to get information real-time and send detectives out.”
The National Institute of Justice studied the technology in Detroit. The study showed “no statistically significant effects on violence crime reports” but some increases in property crime.
At the Tuesday night meeting, no one spoke in favor of the technology. Public commenters said the evidence for the technologies effectiveness was “anecdotal.”
Former City Board candidate Blake Tierney said he wanted the city to track and publicize the data from the cameras.
“It’s not clear whether real time crime centers across the country are effective at reducing clearance rates, reducing response times, or reducing crimes of different types,” he said. “What we have is more anecdotal. That shows maybe there are some feel-good stories about what happens with real time crime centers.”
Commenters were also concerned the technology could be used to target minorities.
Southwest Little Rock resident Karina Espinosa worried for the immigrant community.
“I fear that this would be used to target undocumented immigrants, which is a lot of the population that lives in southwest Little Rock,” she said. “I feel like it would definitely be used to monitor us more.
The technology was approved by the board in a batch with other city resolutions.
After the vote, resident Dawn Jeffery went to the mic and asked for a “point of clarification.” This is not proper under the rules the city board follows for meetings.
“Who all voted in favor of it,” Jeffery asked.
The mayor told her she was out of order.
“I know I am out of order, you're out of order for voting against what the people need.”
She ranted about democracy for several minutes, while others in the crowd yelled “shameful” and “you're failing the city.”
The mayor did not respond to her comments beyond saying she was out of order.
Neither the City of Little Rock or Axon responded to Little Rock Public Radio’s request for comment. The resolution explained there reasoning for approving the policing tool as:
“The City has continuing need of the FUSUS software and hardware.”
